Family Studies: Morning Read Aloud (2014-2015)

This year we had three defined areas where all my children worked together:  Morning Time,  Morning Read Aloud and Weekly Work.  

Morning Read Aloud

This is a spot in our day where I used Sarah's loop scheduling to great advantage.  Sometimes this read aloud got skipped due to time constraints, difficult kid behavior, or mommy fatigue, but the loop scheduling helped us to keep making progress in all the books.  About mid-way through the year I started using Reminders to keep track of the list, and that worked well.  I ended up starting all the books I had planned during this time slot, but there are a few that didn't get finished by our last day of school.  So long as we aren't trying to get out the door first thing in the morning, I try to have a brief Morning Time each day during the summer, and I'm finishing up those read alouds during this time.  One book we finished yesterday, one we'll finish at some point this summer, and the last we'll finish in the next school year.  

I grouped these into categories and read one in each category at a time:

Saint Biography - Saint Joan:  The Girl Soldier*

Church History/Catechism - St. Patrick's Summer* and Crossbows and Crucifixes* (only about a third)

Natural History - Nest for Celeste (worth reading for the illustrations!), Samson: Last of the California Grizzlies*, In the Forest, and Ways of the Wood Folk (about halfway through - we'll finish this in the fall)

Art/Music Enrichment - Knights of Art about Fra Angelico, Hildegard's Gift, and I, Juan de Pareja*

Literature - Wheel on the School* and Red Sails to Capri*

Advent - In Advent, I added an additional read aloud to our schedule, sometimes skipping the scheduled one, and sometimes reading both.  We read The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas*, The Christmas Mystery, and A Christmas Carol*.

*We enjoyed all of these books, but I added asterisks to our particular favorites.